FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT CHIHUAHUA - PAGE 3

The Senate on Thursday confirmed Arturo Chavez Chavez as Mexico's attorney general, despite objections by human-rights activists who assailed his role as prosecutor in the northern state of Chihuahua. Chavez, 49, who was quickly sworn in, becomes Mexico's top law-enforcement official at a crucial moment. President Felipe Calderon's government is at war with drug-trafficking groups that have unleashed waves of violence. Chavez picked up needed opposition support to win confirmation on a 75-27 vote.

A prosecutor said Wednesday that he won't pursue rape and kidnapping charges against Mexican pop star Gloria Trevi. Last week, Trevi, nicknamed "Mexico's Madonna," and two of her backup singers were cleared of similar charges in northern Chihuahua state, where prosecutors alleged they lured girls into their entourage and then sexually abused them. Trevi's manager, Sergio Andrade, is in jail and faces trial on the same allegations. Trevi, 36, was cleared of charges in Chihuahua, but two other former members of her entourage filed complaints against her in Mexico City, where prosecutors said they were considering pursuing the case.

Look at a Chihuahua, with those watery eyes and pointy batwing ears, and you might think that pup put the "ugh" in ugly. Add the high-strung personality and the phrases "yippy little dog" and "wet little rat" come to mind. But now TV is making Chihuahuas cool. We're talking about the ad campaign for Taco Bell in which a Chihuahua goes to great lengths for the Mexican fast food. In one commercial, he bypasses romance with a trembling Chihuahua heroine; in another, he correctly answers a "Jeopardy!

CUAUHTEMOC, Mexico (Reuters) - More than a century after Mennonite farmers left Russia for North America in search of new lands and religious freedom, hundreds of their descendants in Mexico are thinking about completing the circle. Shortage of farmland, drought and conflict with rivals have made some Mennonites in northern Mexico wonder if the best way of providing for their families is to go back to the plains of eastern Europe their ancestors left in the 19th century. This summer a delegation of 11 Mexican Mennonites went to Tatarstan on the southern fringe of European Russia to look at land that could help them protect their spartan way of life from the impact of population growth and climate change.

The outcome of last week's elections in the northern state of Chihuahua showed that the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is not prepared to allow its conservative opposition to mount any sustained challenge to the party's five-decade grip on power, political analysts said Tuesday. Despite the fact that the National Action Party (PAN), the main opponent of the PRI, has its strongest political base in Chihuahua, the official results announced late Monday night showed a landslide victory for the ruling party in elections for the state governorship, 65 of the 67 city mayorships and all but 1 of 14 local legislative seats.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican authorities discovered the bodies of eight men and the remains of others in the northern state of Chihuahua over the weekend, the local government said on Sunday. The eight victims, who were aged 30-35, were found by a road roughly 50 miles south of the city of Chihuahua. The victims had been tortured and shot in the head, a spokesman for the state government said. State prosecutors also found a grave containing the remains of men who died roughly two years ago in the desert area just south of the city of Ciudad Juarez, near the U.S. border.

CIUDAD JUAREZ (Reuters) - Seven people were killed when a gunman opened fire in the early hours of Friday in a bar in northern Mexico, which has seen a resurgence in drug-related violence in recent weeks. The man, armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, killed four men who were clients in the bar in Chihuahua state as well as three women who worked there, said a spokesman for the state attorney general's office. "It has not been determined whether the attack is connected to drug trafficking, but by the type of weapon involved, it is to be assumed," said spokesman Carlos Gonzalez.

Mexican pop idol Gloria Trevi flew home Saturday from Brazil, with the baby she had in prison, to face charges of kidnapping girls and forcing them to have sex with her manager. After nearly three years behind bars, Trevi, 34, gave up fighting extradition last month, saying she feared losing custody of her 10-month-old son, Angel Gabriel, who was conceived under unexplained circumstances in an all-woman cellblock. She was not allowed conjugal visits. The singer, known as Mexico's Madonna, has denied the charges against her. "I miss my country," she said before boarding an airliner in Sao Paulo, Brazil, under Mexican police escort.